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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"Books & Bar-B-Q"

I'd say books will accompany most anything, and definitely, they will serenade bar-b-q! What a phenomenal idea my knee-baby sister, Glenda Halcromb, Miss Know-It-All, came up with. Considering she adores hosting parties and gatherings of any sort, she was the perfect person to serve as hostess actually. Where the guests were concerned, oh how delightful it was to look out into her dining and living rooms to take in their warm, up-lifted faces, waiting expectantly, like cleaned cereal bowls anxious for the day's nourishment!

When I began the reading, with the first chapter, which is Miz Too-Sweet's voice, all sound was escorted from the house. Even the children were stilled. Perhaps it was because I was standing, all others seated, my voice drifting above their heads on the air, loud and dramatic, catching them up in Miz Too-Sweet's telling of how she and her husband Will and their neighborhood friend, Preacher, came to know Frenonia "Free" Roberts one March evening in Atlanta. As I breathed life into the print, I fell in love all over again with the majesty of words and their power to transport one to another place, another time, when Miz Too-Sweet was younger and learning to love the men with whom she walked.

The words whispered to me of a future performance piece. My feet imagined a stage...with its shiny flooring and vast space to stride and stroll this-way-and-that, regaling the audience, inviting them to feel Free's fright at nearly hitting a tiny boy chasing a ball into the middle of a Techwood street.

My soul went to singing it felt so good to be in the flow of others' lives, creative or otherwise! Fathom my joy when my father, slowly making his way to the porch to leave, as he must be back on 85 South before sundown, paused beside me to whisper, "I loved the reading, Tootsie (my nickname)! I'm going to buy my own copy, and I intend to read it, too!" Talk about ecstasy. To be honored amongst one's own is an unbeatable bliss!

This is my lovely daughter-in-law, Shanice, and my former school colleague, Kyla Talley.

My sister, Bernie, whom several guests thought was me, is hanging out with her hubby, who, when I finished my reading, asked me to please read another chapter! Yes! Wasn't that fabulous?

These are my sisters, the Moss girls. (Bernie is a Stitts.) Diane is in the pink. Glenda is the sis in the white blouse! Two others are missing...Athera Everlener Pascascio (in Florida) and baby sis, Katarina Moss. Katarina and my parents and brother Delton and his family had already hit the road to return to Tuskegee by the time Bernie whipped out her camera. Several other guests had sweetly made their exits by then as well. (My twin brother Claude and Lorenzo weren't in attendance.)

I am planning a different sort of book promotion for July! It'll be sexy, literary and theatrical! So stay tuned! Like I said, Beloveds, books will flatter most any concept. Give me a few weeks, as I'm incredibly preoccupied with other endeavors. (laughter) Like what's new with that, some of you may be thinking? And you're right!